Welcome to my blog

Although I'm two years late in the rage of blogs. I figure I might as well join in and make a stab at the blog.

I currently work for a major airline, but after having a midlife crisis, I decided to change careers and work in the wine industry.

This is my journey.

I am 39 years old, and currently studying sommelier courses with the International Sommelier Guild based in Canada. They offer courses though my local University of Houston and I am nearly to the end of the second section of study.

I have drunk wine all my life since a child and was raised on wine and water in an affluent family who did not consider alcohol to be an evil or devils magic, thus I have no guilt having a glass of wine at lunch and feel no need to look at a watch to gauge the time if it's permittable to have a tipple. Subsequently my passing out in toilets, pissing on myself and various other circus tricks of my contemporaries in the (proudly she writes) first year of GenX, did not happen to me.

Now drinking wine all your life and making it a career are drastic differences. Yes I know that certain wines are good and certain wines are bad. MD 20/20 at your local 7-11 is not something I recommend you bring to a dinner party. But the world of wine is crazy and beyond huge. The more you learn the more you don't know.

As I've said I'm in the process of changing careers. I've worked for a major airline for 18 years. I was mainly part time but went full time to get a loan for a home. Before I got married I had a bit of wanderlust, work like a dog for two months, pay up bills, and run off for a month. What a great life. Then I got married and separated due to family obligations to help my parents who were elderly and had fallen ill. Working full time for a major airline is a difficult thing. The average of front line agents are idiots. You have a handfull of staff that are very clever (and usually overstressed to the point of breaking) and they hold up the front line. The remainder are either too lazy or stupid to do their jobs, but because they have excellent attendance nothing can be done to them and they know it. Well, except the stupid ones, they just keep plodding through life as dumb as they were the day before.

Oh, lets get back to where we were, I got off on a tangent there. Anyway, last week I submitted my request to go PART TIME!!!! Woohoo! I'll make up the hours I need to to pay the monthly bills, get a decent shift and work towards getting a job in the wine industry.

The feeling of relief was amazing when I came out of the office after making the request. I was free, I was back in charge of my life. Let's get real gang, 39 is past middle age. You're on the downward slide. I set my goals, I hope to get a full time job with a wine distributor and further my career to a decent fun life. They say it's never too late, well I'm going to make a stab at it and hope it's not.

In this site I will be analyzing and evaluating wine, books and magazine articles as well as posting my journey though the world of wine. I am working towards multiple wine and sommelier certifications and am planning a month long trip to Australia for the 2006 crush in March as well as that ultimate goal, a job in the wine industry and freedom from the current slog of telling people their flight is late.

So this is the Wino's Tale and Journey.